Interloper is an RTS game where matches last five minutes

Interloper is an RTS on speed. A micro-sized distillation of the genre, its matches are meant to last about five minutes.

Based on 10 days of playtesting, the average match lasted only four and a half minutes, according to developer Monogon Games. And it's not because people are rushing through it. It's just designed that way.

Here's how it works: Much like Splatoon, the goal is not to destroy your opponent, but rather claim more colour-coded territory than them. Each player guides what's called a Sentinel through a single-screen map. The Sentinel can claim territory and connect nodes to a base to power up various structures. From there, it can produce drones to block passages, break through enemy defenses, or be used as resources in creating more formidable units.

Developer Maxim Schoemaker explains it in the following video:

Interloper was Student Showcase winner at this year's IGF Awards.

"I've heard a lot of people (especially those with kids or demanding jobs) say that they don't play RTS games anymore because they take so much time. We want to target people that enjoy strategy games, but don't necessarily want hours of tutorials, or loads of numbers and attacks or other bulls*** on the screen," said Monogon's Eline Muijres in an e-mail to Eurogamer. (Fun fact: Muijres worked at Bounden developer Game Oven before her boss decided to shut down the studio to make a game about licking your phone.)

"Interloper distills RTS mechanics to their essence, bringing a focused, stripped down, and fast-paced strategy experience," the developer explained. "The game is more like Chess and Go, and less about resource management or memorising tons of hotkeys. By getting to the core of strategy games, Monogon Games aims to make RTS games more accessible."

Interloper just announced its release date of 21st May, where it will be available on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux.